Saturday, January 12, 2008

As Intended

Every night this week our church family gathered for prayer. Christ Community has been doing this for a number of years, but it was my maiden voyage with this new community of believers. Each night our intercession had a particular focus, and the petitions and praises were intense. CCC is a multiracial congregation, and the tenor and atmosphere reflected our diversity. I think I can speak for all of us when I say -- it was an inspiring and encouraging and unifying experience that brought us into the presence of God.

Christ Community is west of where I live, and while driving to our last prayerful assembly, God unpacked His brushes and palette. On this night an unreproducible Masterpiece was on His mind, and He began to paint. No two clouds are alike--some ragged edged, some slowly dissipating, and some that looked dense enough to stand upon--they slid and shifted and merged. Even the most subtle of changes in the billowy skies transformed my windshield into the lens of a kaleidoscope. Deepening, then lightening, vanishing then reappearing, the canvas that stretched across the western horizon constantly and colorfully and vividly changed.

Sitting at a red-light on University Avenue I smiled when I saw a church steeple back lighted by God's beautiful tapestry. My thoughts? Christ's Church is undergoing changes. It needs to change. A make-over is underway and congregations are no longer blandly white or black. New shades and tones and tinges -- a blending of humanity is converging. Beyond a doubt, Christ is returning us, his Church, to our intended beauty -- into a Masterpiece.